Notes: As always, the Yu-Gi-Oh! characters
don't belong to me. The plot belongs to me, tho, and so does Kasumi, so
no stealin' now! And . . . do I really need to say it again? This IS
NOT slash! I'm sorry about the removal of the song, but with
the newly stated policy I had to remove it. Try listening to the song,
Wildfire by Michael Murphy, while you read. It was the inspiration for
the story.

Mokuba yawned, rubbing his eyes
tiredly. It was the middle of the night . . . what had woken him up?
Some kind of song . . . but where was it coming from? He didn't think
Seto would be having the radio on at 2am.

Then he realized that
it was coming from outside. Slowly he climbed out of bed and crept over
to the window, which looked out over the sprawling backyard. There was
nothing there . . . no, wait . . . there was a girl. She had just
seemed to appear out of thin air, but that was impossible . . . wasn't
it?

The girl was singing a haunting song in a language that
Mokuba didn't know, and then she called "Wildfire!" in English.
Immediately a beautiful silver stallion bounded out from the apple
trees, whinnying happily. The girl climbed on the horse's back and rode
off, still singing her song.

Mokuba watched as horse and rider
vanished into thin air, his blue-gray eyes wide. Had he just been
dreaming? It seemed so real . . . how could it have just been a dream?
Who was she? Why was she on their property? Where had she gone?

Quickly Mokuba ran to the door and opened it. He had to tell Seto about this.

He
knocked on his brother's bedroom door. "Big brother! Are you awake?"
Not receiving an answer, he turned the knob and went in. Seto was
asleep, but Mokuba felt that this bizarre occurrence was one he should
be told about as soon as possible.

Mokuba
paused. "Well, I couldn't see her very well, but she had long, kind of
mint green hair and she was wearing a long, lavender dress." He looked
up at Seto curiously. "Do you know her from somewhere, big brother?"

Seto
sighed. "Actually, no, I don't, Mokuba. I don't know anyone like that.
What I'd like to know is, what was she doing on the lawn in the middle
of the night calling her horse?" His eyes narrowed. "I don't like the
sounds of this. I think I'll call extra security guards to patrol the
grounds tonight."

The next day during lunch
at school, Seto overheard Joey Wheeler talking about wanting to do
something scary for Halloween, which was coming up at the end of the
month.

"Scary?" Tristan laughed. "Oooh, bad idea, Joey. You know
how you totally freaked out when you thought there was a skeleton in
your locker because of a leftover chicken drumstick that looked like a
bony finger."

"Heeey," Joey grumbled, as Yugi, Tea, and Bakura chuckled at the remembrance.

"Well,
we had just come from reading Edgar Allen Poe for that literature
class," Yugi said with a smile. "It was an honest mistake, Joey." He
paused. "But seriously, we should do something for Halloween. That
would be fun."

"If you're looking for something bizarre, what do
you think about this—there was a girl standing in my backyard last
night who vanished into thin air with her horse."

Everyone turned
to look at Seto Kaiba, who was standing near their table holding his
briefcase, an emotionless and unreadable expression on his face.

Joey raised an eyebrow. "Are you makin' a joke, Kaiba?"

"I don't joke, Wheeler," Seto replied.

"She really vanished?" Yugi said, his violet eyes wide.

"She did," Seto told him.

"That sounds almost like the Legend of Wildfire," Bakura remarked quietly.

All eyes turned to the silver-haired boy. "The what?" Joey demanded.

"The
Legend of Wildfire," Bakura repeated. "It's quite an interesting ghost
story that's about thirty years old. According to the legend, a young
girl had a pony named Wildfire that she loved very dearly and rode
every day. The pony in turn displayed great affection for his owner.

"Then
one winter, the girl passed away during a fierce storm. The pony became
very upset and inconsolable and ran away, only to become lost in a
blizzard. Then the girl's ghost returned to rescue her horse." Bakura
paused.

"Is there more?" Seto asked.

Bakura nodded. "Over
the years, many people have claimed to have seen the ghosts of the girl
and her horse. Some have even claimed to have taken a midnight ride
with them."

As
Seto rode home that afternoon in his limo, he stared out the window,
his thoughts wandered. The Legend of Wildfire . . . how foolish. Did
Bakura think he would believe that old ghost story?

Suddenly he gasped, spotting the girl Mokuba had described. "Stop!" he ordered the chauffeur, who confusedly complied.

Seto threw the car door open and ran out. "Who are you?" he demanded. "Why were you on my property?"

The
girl only smiled and said something in another tongue. Seto caught his
name being spoken as the girl waved and vanished. He just stared at the
space where the girl had been only a moment before, even more confused
than ever.

"Uh, Mr. Kaiba, sir, what was that?" the chauffeur asked.

"I wish I knew," Seto said finally.

That
night Seto stayed up on the Internet looking for any information on the
ridiculous legend of Wildfire. The computer found at least a dozen
different versions of the tale, all with three elements in common, tho
everything else varied—the girl always died, her pony always ran away,
and their ghosts were always seen by others.

"I don't understand," Seto muttered. "Supposing the legend is true, what would she want with me?"

"Search me," the computer replied.

Seto sighed. "Try another Internet search," he directed. "Look for articles on why people see apparitions."

"You
got it," the computer said. After a pause while it searched, it
announced, "I've found over a thousand results. Do you want me to show
them to you on screen?"

"Yes, go ahead," Seto said, and soon
found himself pouring over endless articles that didn't seem to make
much sense to him. Eventually overcome by the long hours spent
searching, he collapsed across the keyboard and fell into a troubled
sleep, peppered with disturbing dreams of the mysterious girl calling
his name and beckoning to him to follow her.

Seto awoke with a start, breathing heavily. "What was that!" he exclaimed.

"I
don't know," the computer replied, "because I can't read your mind to
find out what you saw in your dream. But I did find out some more
interesting information. Have a look at this."

Seto brushed his
long bangs out of his eyes and stared at the computer screen. One
disturbing notation caught his eye. "'Often times, when people witness
apparitions, it's due to an impending disaster, even the person's own
impending . . . death!'" He growled in irritation, hating the fact that
it made an eerie kind of sense, and then looked over the rest of the
article, which gave accounts of actual events to back up the writer's
musings. Suddenly his eyes went wide. "Mokuba . . . he was the first to
see the girl! If anyone's in danger, it must be him!"

"Then why does the girl keep hanging around you?" the computer wanted to know.

"Maybe
she wants to warn me . . . or maybe I'm in danger as well," Seto
suggested, his eyes narrowing. "That must be it. I have to make contact
with that girl!"

"Good luck," the computer said.

"Thanks."
Seto stood up and went to the window. Nothing, except an owl hooting
eerily. "I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered. "I feel as
though I'm going to die before long, and that there's nothing I can do
to prevent it." He clenched his fist angrily. "I don't feel that Mokuba
is in any danger, but that I am." The owl hooted again. "But I won't
die without a fight," Seto said stonily as he looked at the bird.

"Hey,
Kaiba, what's been up with you lately?" Joey asked curiously at the end
of the week, cornering Seto in the hall at school. "You've been actin'
kinda weird . . . not that that's new," he laughed.

"Man,
he's been in a dither ever since he told us about that whole freaky
ghost girl thing," Joey remarked. "And everytime I see him, he's
reading some new book on ghosts, or on why they make contact with us."
He shook his head. "I think that legend you told him really freaked him
out, Bakura," he said.

"Whoa,
will you look at the storm that's brewin' out there?" Joey commented
suddenly, looking out the window at the dark gray, purple, and black
clouds covering the sky. "When the clouds actually get black, you know
there's somethin' big and bad comin' this way."

"It does look
like it could get pretty bad," Yugi nodded. "Why don't you all come
over to my place when school's out?" he suggested, and everyone agreed.

Later
on, when the last classes of the day were letting out, Yugi found Seto
looking out a window on the top floor of the school, all color drained
from his face. "Are you okay?" Yugi asked, concerned.

Seto didn't answer the question. "Yugi . . . did you see her?"

"Huh? See who? Kaiba, we're on the top floor," Yugi exclaimed. "No one could be outside the window up here."

"I
saw her," Seto replied fiercely, his knuckles white as he clutched his
briefcase. "She's come . . . I know she's come . . ." He stopped,
trying to get control of his emotions. He had become a real basket case
over the past few days. Everywhere he looked, he saw the girl—outside
his estate, going down the sidewalk, walking past the school . . . even
outside the window he was at now. She wouldn't leave him alone and he
was becoming frustrated and concerned.

"Kaiba, what's wrong?"
Yugi was starting to get alarmed. Seto's behavior wasn't normal for
him. . . . It was almost as if he sensed some kind of doom, the
violet-eyed boy thought.

Seto shook his head, turning to leave.
"Yugi," he said after a moment's pause, "I may not have always shown
it, but I want you to know that I've always been grateful for
everything you've done to help Mokuba and me."

Yugi blinked in
surprise. Of all things he had expected at the moment, a thank you was
not one of them. "I just wanted to help my friends," he said with a
smile, looking Seto directly in the eyes to let him know that he was
thought of as a friend.

"I haven't always been that good a friend
to you, Yugi," Seto said seriously. "But thanks again. It means a lot."
He disappeared down the hall, leaving a very confused and worried Yugi.

Yami, what's wrong with him? Yugi asked the ancient pharaoh. He acted almost as if . . . as if he thought he wouldn't get a chance to thank me some other time.

That's exactly what he thought, Yami Yugi replied grimly. Kaiba is convinced that he continues to see the mysterious girl because he's going to die. He paused. And frankly, I don't know but what that might be true.

What do you want? Seto screamed in his mind. What do you want with me!

He
was standing in his home office, looking out the window at the same old
hoot owl, who had perched outside the window all week. A cold chill ran
down the boy's spine and he knew . . . the girl was coming for him. It
wasn't his imagination—he could sense it strongly.

The lights flickered. "There will most likely be aftershocks," Seto said grimly.

He was right. The first one came about five minutes later, knocking them both off-balance.

"Big brother!" Mokuba screamed as he was swept off his feet.

"Don't worry, Mokuba. I've got you!" Seto grabbed Mokuba just as the lights went out, plunging them into darkness.

"I can't see anything!" Mokuba gasped.

"It's
alright, Mokuba," Seto said soothingly as the shaking stopped. "Let's
try to find our way to the telephone to call the power company and tell
them what's happening."

They started feeling their way down the darkened hall. That's when a now all-too-familiar rumbling tore through the manor.

"Not again!" Mokuba cried, and then screamed as he tripped and fell over a fallen bookcase.

"Mokuba!" Seto tried to find him in the inky blackness, knowing that it was a very dangerous situation.

"I'm over here, big brother!" Mokuba called, jumping a mile high as something crashed right near him.

"Okay,
I've got you, Mokuba. Everything will be alright," Seto assured him,
just as another load of furniture tumbled to the floor. Something hard
hit Mokuba on the head and he fell unconscious in his brother's arms.
"Mokuba!" Seto gasped. He knew he had to get his brother to safety
immediately.

Somehow he managed to make it across the room while
furniture fell over left and right, and he gently laid his brother in a
nook in the corner of the room. "You'll be safe in here, Mokuba," he
whispered.

Abruptly Seto was slammed to the floor by something
hard and heavy, and pain exploded through him. "Please be safe,
Mokuba," he rasped, losing consciousness.

When
Mokuba finally opened his eyes, the shaking had stopped, but it was
still dark all around him. "Big brother!" he called frantically. No
answer. Slowly the young boy's eyes adjusted to the darkness and he
groped for some kind of flashlight. He was certain there had been some
in this room somewhere.

Instead of a flashlight, his hand brushed
against the sleeve of a familiar trenchcoat. "Big brother?" he gasped.
"Are you sleeping? Wake up, big brother! Please!"

Just when he
needed it, Mokuba found a flashlight on the floor and clicked it on. A
soft light bathed the room, revealing that Seto was laying deathly
still on the floor, a heavy bookcase across his body, pinning him to
the floor.

Mokuba's eyes went wide in horror. "Seto! Are you hurt
bad? Please . . . big brother, answer me!" Silence was his only answer,
and as he tried frantically to lift the bookcase up, he realized that
he couldn't hear his brother breathing. Shaking his head in denial,
Mokuba finally shoved the bookcase aside and knelt next to Seto,
desperately trying to find some sign of life.

"Seto? Please, you
gotta get up!" Mokuba begged in vain. "You can't be dead! You just
can't!" He could see his brother was lying too still.

"Dear God,
please help," Mokuba prayed, his small body wracked with sobs. "I can't
lose Seto! He's all I have in the world . . . I love him so much!
Please, he can't die!" He didn't know artificial respiration, and the
phones were all out due to the storm, so he couldn't call for help
either. All he could do was try desperately to awaken his brother and
pray that he would be alright.

Suddenly a bright light glowed in front of him, and he
shielded his eyes. When he dared to look again, he found that the girl
was standing there, shimmering, her long, mint-green hair blowing in a
gentle breeze.

Seto had never seen her close-up before, only from
distances. He now saw that she didn't look that much older than Mokuba,
and he stepped back in surprise. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Kasumi," she replied softly. "And I know who you are, Seto Kaiba." She smiled. "Please come and ride with me," she implored.

"Ride with you where?" Seto wanted to know, raising an eyebrow.

"Wherever Wildfire decides to take us," Kasumi replied, calling to her pony, who came trotting over.

It
was then that Seto noticed that he was shimmering as well. "What's
going on here!" he burst out. "Am I . . . dead! But I can't be!"

Kasumi
smiled, coming over and surprising Seto by giving him a little hug.
"You remind me of my brother. He was such a special person, just as I
know you are."

Seto was caught off guard by the girl's sweet
innocence. "You didn't answer my question," he said finally. "But let
me tell you something, kid—if I am dead, I have to go back. I want to
go back. My brother needs me. And . . . I need him, too."

Kasumi
nodded, looking up at him. "It's not your time. Of course we will take
you back." She mounted her pony, who had lowered himself down so she
could climb on easier.

Seto looked from Kasumi to her horse and
back again. Maybe, he thought, this is all just a weird dream and I'll
wake up soon. Hesitantly, he too climbed onto the horse's back, and at
Kasumi's soft command, they rode off.

They had been riding in silence for several minutes when Kasumi started singing softly in another language.

"What does that mean in English?" Seto asked somewhat curiously when she'd finished.

"It's Hawaiian," she told him. "It's a song about finding happiness."

"And what does it say about finding happiness?" Seto wanted to know.

Kasumi smiled. "One must be with their loved ones," she replied.

Seto nodded. Very true. "Why have you been following me?" he asked.

"I've
been watching you," Kasumi said softly. "I didn't mean any harm." She
smiled. "I was actually sent to make certain that you and your brother
are not separated." Wildfire slowed to a stop in a foggy mist. "This is
where you get off," Kasumi said to Seto.

"What? I don't see anything here, kid. Are you trying to pull something?" Seto asked suspiciously.

Kasumi shook her head. "You'll see." She turned around to hug him again. "Take care, Seto Kaiba," she whispered.

A collective gasp was heard from the parlor. "Mokuba, what room are you in?" Yugi asked.

"The library," he replied. "Third door on your left."

Soon Yugi and the others had threaded their way through the disaster zone and into the library.

"Oh man . . . what a mess," Joey muttered.

"Mokuba, what happened to your brother?" Yugi asked seriously, kneeling down next to Seto's body.

"I'm
not sure," Mokuba replied, unable to stop the tears. "I got knocked
out. But when I woke up, he was laying like this and that . . . that
bookcase was on top of him."

"That's not good," Yugi said grimly.

"How is he, Yugi?" Tristan asked.

Yugi
sent him a message with his eyes that said clearly, I'm afraid Mokuba
might be right. After using the Millennium Puzzle to scan Kaiba for
injuries, he said aloud, "Help me get him out of here and upstairs.
We'll lay him on his bed." Quickly Joey and Tristan went to assist.

Yugi
looked at the young boy seriously. "I'll be honest with you, Mokuba. I
can't tell whether he's dead or not, but I'm afraid that's a strong
possibility."

Seto found himself falling through a strange,
seemingly endless tunnel. He heard voices from far away, including
Mokuba's, who called to him frantically. He tried to call back but
found his voice useless as he plunged into complete darkness.

"Oh man," Joey said softly. "Look at him. I think he's dead."

With
the power still out, they had brought the flashlight upstairs to light
the room. Seto Kaiba looked pale and lifeless as he lay unmoving on the
bed.

Mokuba shook his head. "He can't be gone! He can't be! He
said he wouldn't leave me! He said he wouldn't . . ." He collapsed on
the bed next to his brother and hugged him tightly, sobbing
uncontrollably.

"Yugi, this is heart-breaking," Tea said sadly to Yugi in an undertone. "Isn't there anything we can do?"

The
first thing Seto was aware of was Mokuba's tearful embrace. For a
moment, he couldn't recall what had happened, but then he remembered
the earthquake, the aftershocks . . . Mokuba had been hurt, and then
he, Seto, had been struck down by . . . something. Then there had been
Kasumi. . . .

Yugi nodded in agreement. "You were very blessed, Kaiba. I was concerned that you had perished this time."

Seto smiled crookedly. "You know it would take a lot to get rid of me, Yugi."

"And, boy, am I glad of it!" Mokuba declared.

As
Seto hugged his brother, he had to wonder if the whole thing with
Kasumi had just been a dream. Had he really been . . . dead! Perhaps
he'd never know for sure, but one thing he did know—he wasn't going to
let anything separate him and Mokuba—not ever.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.